


Reunion on Beast Island

by Havendance



Series: Truth, Justice, and Horde Politics [3]
Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: (It doesn't really play a major role though, Beast Island (She-Ra), Boats, Entrapdak, Feelings, Friendships falling apart, Gen, Lonely people worrying, Post S3, Reunions, Tax evasion, all sorts, don't expect me to show you what the fate worse than death is), enthusiasm about science, what sort of feelings?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-04
Updated: 2019-11-04
Packaged: 2021-01-22 16:30:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,145
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21305123
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Havendance/pseuds/Havendance
Summary: In which Hordak having learned to the truth goes to regain his lab partner, Entrapta wakes up on a boat far away from her lab and is justifiably annoyed, and Scorpia finds herself more and more torn about her friendship with Catra.Or, that reunion fic we all want.(Technically a sequel to Turnabout Traitor! but it's pretty different and can be read on its own.)
Relationships: Catra & Scorpia (She-Ra), Entrapta/Hordak (She-Ra)
Series: Truth, Justice, and Horde Politics [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1465861
Comments: 6
Kudos: 57





	Reunion on Beast Island

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is technically a sequel to Turnabout Traitor!, an Ace Attorney crossover fic I wrote where Phoenix Wright uncovers the truth behind what really happened when the Princesses attacked. If that sounds up your alley and you haven't read it, you should totally read it. If it doesn't sound up your alley, fear not, this fic works pretty well as stand-alone (at least I think so). All you need to know is that Phoenix Wright showed up, did his lawyer thing, uncovered the truth. Now, Catra's in hot water, Hordak knows the truth and is going to get his lab partner back. 
> 
> I hope you enjoy reading this!

Scorpia made her way nervously through abandoned halls towards the Horde’s forgotten docks, Entrapta’s unconscious body slung over her shoulder. No one in their right mind went down there - it was the closest you got to Beast Island in the Horde proper - and yet here she was. She didn’t really like what she was doing, but up there in the lab, Catra had been terrifying. She was just glad that no one had seen her coming down here.

Old Captain Sharko was snoring softly on the deck of his ship when she arrived.

“Uh, excuse me, Captain Sharko?” Scorpia said, shifting Entrapta to her other shoulder and poking at the man.

“What? Errm, yes. Scorpia, is that you?” He sat up, looking in the completely wrong direction. He was blind as a bat but no one else wanted his position so he stayed. He probably had the most security of anyone in the Horde.

“Over here, Captain. I’ve got a last-minute addition for the transport to Beast Island. Catra asked me to bring her down here.” She dumped Entrapta’s body on the deck of the boat with a thump.

He nodded and reached into his coat pocket, pulling out a little notebook and a pen. “Seems you’re always running her errands. That whippersnapper should come down here herself some time. What’s the name?”

“It’s, uh, Es'tra, Es’tra Vesselak,” Scorpia said the first name that came to mind. Captain Sharko may have been blind, but that didn’t stop him from picking up on the gossip. “And, you know, Catra’s been busy, helping Lord Hordak and all.”

“We’ve all been there before,” Captain Sharko nodded sympathetically as he scribbled something in his notebook. “Isn’t that your Aunt’s name?”

Shit. It was. “Uh, you see, my aunt’s actually named, um, Ves’dra Nesselak. It’s an easy mistake to make.”  
“Yes, yes, I remember now.” He nodded some more. Now that Scorpia thought about it, she wasn’t sure if he’d actually stopped nodding the first time. “What’s she in for?”

Scorpia wasn’t actually sure what Catra had accused Entrapta of, other than disagreeing with her. She had to think of something. “Tax evasion?” Wait, did the Horde even have taxes? Shit. It was too late to take it back.

Captain Sharko nodded his head gravely. “Serious thing, tax evasion. I pay my taxes every year to Lord Hordak.”

“E-Exactly.” Scorpia did not pay her taxes. “You just got to make examples of tax evaders. Anyway, I’d better be heading back,” she started to back away before she could be drawn deeper into this conversation.

“Of course,” Captain Sharko continued to nod in the wrong direction. “I’ll have someone take her down.”

Scorpia left as quickly as she could, feeling a little nervous, a little guilty, and a little unsure. She knew she should trust Catra, but still. Had that really been necessary?”

* * *

Entrapta woke up with her mind buzzing with ideas. So, the portal had collapsed when it was activated, but that just gave them so much more data to use! With the right workarounds, the project was sure to be a success. Still thinking of the possibilities, she reached for her recorder only to find that it was gone. That shocked her back to her present surrounds which were most definitely not her laboratory.

She was in a room about half-filled with people. A handful of them were wearing Horde uniforms and the rest appeared to be prisoners of some sort. The place smelled of salt, sweat, and urine. It was swaying slightly. The evidence suggested that she was on a boat of some kind.. A glance down at her hands and feet were revealed that she numbered among the prisoners. The restraints wouldn’t usually be a problem - if there was something that could resist the lockpicking efforts of her hair, it hadn’t been invented yet - but there were people around and she was pretty sure it was impolite to pick locks while other people were looking. At least that was the impression she’d gotten last time she’d been locked.

Catra must have done this to her, Entrapta realized, remembering fully the events that had taken place before the portal had opened. She had to get back to the fright zone and tell Hordak about, well, everything.

“Excuse me!” she said, waving at one of the soldiers. “I need to get back to the Horde, so if you could just let me go, that’d be great.”

Everyone in the room glared at her. One of the soldiers laughed. “Yeah, right. And I’m She Ra.”

“I mean, for one thing, you’re clearly not. And there’s some very important science that I need to be doing. I’m sure it won’t be that much trouble to turn around real quick.”  
The soldier scoffed. “Nice try, prisoner, but this ship doesn’t turn around. You’re headed to Beast Island and there’s nothing you can do about it.”

Beast Island, so that was where she was headed. Entrapta had heard things about Beast Island, none of which were good. It certainly wouldn’t be a good place to work on her research. Maybe there was some First One’s tech on Beast Island. That would be the only thing that would make this entire situation tolerable.

It took an unbearably long time to get to Beast Island. At one point food was passed out but it was those horrid ration bars, too sticky, too big, and just plain inedible. Entrapta was not good with waiting. There was nothing to do besides fidget and fidgeting wasn’t intellectually stimulating.

It was a relief when the boat finally came to a stop and the soldiers started herding them up a narrow flight of stairs. When she got to the front of the line, a soldier glared at her over a clipboard.

“This one isn’t on the manifest,” she said shortly.

“See, I told you, I’m not supposed to be--” Entrapta started to say.

“Shut up! Nobody cares.” The soldier with the clipboard cut her off. She turned to the transport’s captain, a fish-man who looked half-blind. “Who’s she. I need to put something down on the paperwork.”

“Uhh, I think she was a last-minute addition?,” The captain scratched at his head and rummaged around in his pockets finally pulling out a crumpled piece of paper. “Here. I think she’s one of Force Captain Catra’s.”

The soldier glanced at the paper. “Tax evasion, huh? That’s got to be a first.” She folded it up. “Looks like everything’s in order.” She waved Entrapta on. “Next.”

With that, Entrapta was lead off towards the main prison before she could so much as explain that as a princess, she didn’t need to pay taxes and also she had very science to do back in the Horde. This whole mess was entirely more trouble than it was worth. No one really was showing any appreciation for the value of her research.

* * *

Scorpia paused outside of the Catra’s cell. It was just to catch her balance, not because she was nervous. She just hadn’t gotten her sea legs yet, that was all.

Catra was sitting inside the tiny room, back to the door. Maybe there’d be a way to get her out, to smuggle her off the boat before they arrived at Beast Island. Scorpia knew that she should help Catra out, they were friends, that’s what friends did. But then, why couldn’t she make herself open the door? She wasn’t scared. She couldn’t be scared. (She’d tried to forget the look in Catra’s eyes at the trial and how terrifying that had been.)

The boat rocked back and forth. There were footsteps getting louder in the background. Someone was coming. Scorpia wasn’t sure how long she’d spent standing outside the door. Was she supposed to meeting with Catra’s squad- her squad? She had to get out of here. As she walked away she promised that next time she’d speak to Catra. It just wasn’t the right time yet. That was all.

* * *

Lord Hordak, ruler of the Horde, sat on the makeshift throne in his quarters. He was not nervous. He did not get nervous. He would admit though that he found himself… troubled when thinking of Entrapta. He had no doubt that she could take anything that was thrown at her, but this was Beast Island she was on. Most people who were sent there did not make it out alive. If she was hurt, then there would be a reckoning.

He had been a fool to ever believe a word that Catra - that liar - had said. He had been a fool and now he was paying for it. He had learned that Entrapta had not chosen to leave him but what if she didn’t want to stay after seeing how he’d failed? What if he lost her a second time? He found himself reaching for the gem on his collar. The thought was too much to consider. He would find Entrapta. He would bring her back and everything would be right again.

* * *

Entrapta was crawling through the vents of the fortress part of Beast Island. The prison part had been completely dull, no technology whatsoever for her to interact with and not a trace of first one’s tech. It hadn’t been that hard to escape - nobody guarded the vents. So far it had been only marginally more interesting than where she had come from. Really, she was just killing time until she could hitch a ride back to the Horde and get back to working on the portal.

She’d been in the vents for about 12(?) days (It was so much harder to keep track of time without her recorder) when she heard the sound of a familiar voice drifting past her.

“-fail to-” it drifted in and out, “ -unpleasant consequences-”

It almost sounded like… Hordak? Entrapta scrambled through the maze of vents towards the voice. As she got closer, she could hear a second voice as well.

“- quite difficult -” It sounded nervous. “ - deadly beasts.”

“Silence!” That was Hordak’s voice alright. He’d found her! She’d be back at her research in no time, now. Entrapta was so excited that she missed the next part of the conversation. The next time she heard his voice, it was coming from right beneath her. 

“-if so much as a hair on her head has been harmed, you will soon find yourself on the side of these walls, warden.”

Entrapta kicked out the closest grate and lowered herself into the room. “Hordak!” she said, running over to him.

“Entrapta, I see you are unharmed.” Entrapta could see that he was just as happy to see her as she was to see him. The warden was still quivering in fear in the corner.

“Yeah, I can take care of myself,” she shrugged. “It’s a relief to see you through. I collected some amazing data from the portal’s collapse and I haven’t gotten a real chance to do anything with it. I did come up with some preliminary ideas to increase the portal’s stability, but I’d need access to more resources to do anything more than that.”

“Excellent,” Hordak said. He glanced over to the warden, “It appears that you may maintain your position for now,” he said before turning and leaving the room. Entrapta gave a little wave to the man, who was bowing deeply in the corner, before following Hordak out.

* * *

While Lord Hordak was talking to the Warden, Scorpia was supposed to be handing Catra over to the soldiers at Beast Island. She arguably was doing that, just in the slowest and most convoluted way possible.

“It’s not too late,” she said softly as they hiked up the trail to the main fortress, “We could still just leave, go back and rule the Crimson Wastes together.” 

Catra shrugged. The action contained none of her usual bravado. “Like that’s ever worked before. Adora always manages to ruin things. At least this is the one place I’ll never run into her at.”

“It doesn’t have to--”

“Who are you to tell what my life can and can’t be?” Catra snapped. “You're not the one living in it. You're not the one who gets torn down every time you try and stand up.”

“Catra-” Scorpia started to say.

Catra cut her off. “I don’t need your pity. I don’t need your help.” She got right up in Scorpia’s face. “It’s your fault I’m here in the first place.”

Scorpia took a step back. “What are you talking about? I helped you to frame Entrapta. It’s not my fault that lawyer showed up.”

“The lawyer wasn’t the problem. The problem was that recorder. If you hadn’t missed it in the first place we would’ve won the trial and no of this would’ve happened.”

“Catra,” Scorpia didn’t stop the hurt from slipping through into her voice, “I’ve _ always _ stood by you.”

“Really? It doesn’t really feel like it.” Catra turned away and started walking towards the fortress. “I should’ve known you would abandon me, eventually. No one ever sticks around.”

Scorpia just stood, frozen in place by Catra’s words. She’d never abandoned her. Or had she? _ It’s your fault. _ The words bounced around in her head. _ I should’ve known you would abandon me. _ It felt like Catra had sunk her claws into their friendship and pulled it apart, spilling blood and pain and betrayal. “Fine!” Scorpia shouted after Catra, suddenly angry. “Have it your way! It’s not like I want to help you!” It was a lie.

Catra paused for second but kept walking. When they got to the fortress, Scorpia handed her over without a word. Catra didn’t turn to look back once. Scorpia tried to do the same. She failed. What had she just done?

* * *

Lord Hordak sat on his throne on his ship with Entrapta sitting next to him talking eagerly about their portal experiment. This was what he had wanted: his lab partner back, the traitor Catra no longer in a position to bother him. Why then could he not forget the poisonous words she had spoken? 

Entrapta did not seem to notice the weight on his mind. Under most circumstances, her enthusiasm would be a welcome distraction, something to throw himself into in order to hide from his failures. She never saw his failures. But now, her very presence reminded him of his failure to see through Catra’s treachery.

“- so if we adjust the polarity to account for that interference, it should work better. Of course, that means we’d have to get our hands on the sword, again,” Entrapta paused only for a moment before continuing to talk about science. “Maybe we can synthesize the sword! As long as we have the right First One’s tech-”

“Entrapta,” Hordak said. He had to tell her.

“-unique as far as I can tell,” Entrapta paused. “Do you think it’s feasible?”

“Possibly.” If anyone could do it, she could. “There’s something else though, that I was wanting to talk about.”

“Good point, maybe we should be focusing more on the portal’s collapse. Hmmm.” Her hair began to wander in the way that it did when she was thinking hard.

“No. I mean, the portal’s collapse could be key.” Hordak paused to gather his thoughts. “Entrapta, after the portal’s collapse, Catra said you betrayed me.”

“I wouldn’t betray you,” Entrapta smiled. “You’re my lab parter.” She reached out and tapped at the collar of his armor with a tendril of her hair. “I made you this didn’t I?”

Was the way his heart beat faster when she said those words another defect? Or was it something else? No, it wasn’t the time. Hordak forced his mind back to the matter at hand. “But I believed her. I should’ve seen through her lies at once, but It took a lawyer from another dimension to show me the truth.”

Entrapta just shrugged. “You found me in the end, though.” Her eyes grew wide. “Wait, did you say from another dimension?”

“Yes,” Hordak said, feeling almost a little lighter for having told her. “Most likely not my dimension though. He came from a planet, I’d never heard of.”

Entrapta gasped. “Of course! The reality shockwaves from the collapse!” She leaned in eagerly, “Did you run some tests on him?”

“No. I left immediately to retrieve you.”

“We’ll have to do that as soon as we get back,” Entrapta leaned back thoughtfully. “Who knows how long his presence here will be stable. Just think of the data! This is good, this good, oooh, this is good.”  
  
Hordak nodded and listened as his lab partner energetically began to list off all the possible directions their research could take. He smiled, not that anyone noticed. The future looked bright with Entrapta back by his side.

* * *

The Frightzone appeared to still be standing when they returned which Hordak considered to be a good sign. At least his soldiers weren’t completely incompetent. 

Force Captian Serpena was waiting on the docks. She bowed as he disembarked.. “Lord Hordak.”

Before he could say anything though, Entrapta pushed her way in front of him. “Where’s the lawyer?” she asked eagerly. Her enthusasium was truely admirable.

Force Captain Serpena looked nervous at the question. More nervous than usual that was; Hordak had instilled a healthy sense of fear in his staff. “My apologiesss, but the lawyer and hisss companion have vanissshed from quartersss, my lady.” She bowed again.

Hordak sighed. It was not an entirely unexpected turn of events, but he knew Entrapta would be disappointed.

Sure enough, Entrapta’s drooped slightly. “This is why you should’ve done the tests before coming to get me,” she said, turning to him. “Now we’ve lost all that data.”

“The thought had not occurred to me.” He had been more concerned about her wellbeing, but he knew that that would not be a very argument to his lab partner.

Entrapta went back to interrogating Serpena. “Do you at least know when they disappeared?”  
“Umm, it wasss only a few hoursss after Lord Hordak left.”

“So they couldn’t have been here that long,” Entrapta muttered to herself. Hordak could see that the wheels were already turning in her head. “I’m going to go to the inner sanctum and punch some numbers,” she said, giving him a quick smile before scampering away towards the lab before he could warn her that the place had been wrecked from the portal’s explosion.

Hordak forced down the smile that seeing her in her element brought on. He had appearances to maintain. He turned his attention back to Force Captain Serpena, “Anything else major to report, Force Captain?”

“We received a reply from the princessss alliance--”

He cut her off with a wave. “Unimportant.” That matter had already been resolved.

“Then no, my Lord.”

“Good. You are dismissed.” Hordak turned and followed the where Entrapta had run. There was science to be done.

  


**Author's Note:**

> I got this idea shortly after I got the idea for Turnabout Traitor! and they were just linked enough that I didn't want to separate them but different enough that you really don't need to read one to read the other or anything. 
> 
> Since the new season's dropping in like two days, I really wanted to get this out before it became even less canon than it's already non-canoness (because there's no way Phoenix Wright is actually showing up in the show). (Also, I can't be the only person nervous about the fact that Entrapta hasn't shown up in any of the trailers, right?) I hope they reunite in season 4.
> 
> Anyway, I hope you enjoyed reading this!


End file.
